Document rermpyjy2Zdy52kjkVQ2o9LDG

Jm/i emulsifies the gas and water with a proprietary chemical emulsifying agent. Dr. Ewbank, who has been working on the process since 1965, says that as much as 13% water can be used with no engine modifica tions other than minor carburetor adjustments and disconnection of pollution control equipment. ICI ties together business in Americas A big new chemical enterprise spanning North and South America emerges today. Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries is pooling all its operations in those areas into a single company, ICI Americas, whose sales exceed $1 billion. So that it will not be confused with the new firm, ICI's major wholly owned U.S. subsidiary meanwhile has changed its name from ICI America to ICI United States. The new structure for ICI's ac tivities in the Western Hemisphere, according to William B. Duncan, chairman of ICI Americas, will "bring about a closer degree of coordination" within the region. "This will ensure, above all, that management resources of our major companies are available in a mutu ally supportive way to our smaller companies throughout the Ameri cas, particularly the developing companies in Latin America, he adds. ICI Americas will tie together five companies operating in North America and six in Latin America. The largest units are Canadian In dustries, Ltd., Canada's largest chemical company with sales of $385 million last year; ICI United States, with sales of $250 million; and Duperial in Argentina, with sales close to $100 million. A Latin American division will look after five smaller subsidiaries in Brazil, Mexico, and other Latin American countries, where sales totaled about Duncan: closer degree of coordination $100 million. ICI Americas' head quarters will be adjacent to ICI United States' facilities in Wilming ton. Del. Mr. Duncan, who had been chairman of the former ICI America since 1969 and is also a director of parent ICI in England, notes that the new regional organization will have considerable autonomy. An unusual feature is that its board of directors, made up of 15 members drawn from the U.K., the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, in cludes nine outsiders who are not officials of ICI or its affiliates. Presi dent and chief executive of ICI Americas is Edward J. Goett, who had been president of the former ICI America. Airco late entry into 02 sewage treatment Although well behind competition by Union Carbide and Air Prod ucts, Airco is entering the poten tially huge new market for oxygen and oxygen technology in wastewa ter treatment with a new system it calls F30 (forced free-fall oxygen ation). Like its competitors, Airco initially is aiming at new and upgraded municipal wastewater treatment plants. However, the company also is designing the F30 system for use in chemical, pulp and paper, hydrocarbon, and food processing wastewater plants. Recognizing the handicap of being third into the business be hind the four-year-old Unox system of Union Carbide and the two-yearold Oases system of Air Products, Airco vice president Warren Fran cis says, "We wanted to bring something [new] to the party." Mr. Francis points to four distin guishing characteristics of the F30 system: compact modular design (the system can sit like a box in the corner of an existing aeration tank), lower capital cost and less plant al teration, increased safety from oxy gen-triggered explosions, and im mediacy of operation. These points make F30 particu larly suited for upgrading existing city sewage plants. Airco will push hard on the system's quick installa tion at relatively low cost ($100,000 per million gallons a day of plant capacity), its favorable energy use (the same as or less than an exist ing treatment plant), and its ability to double or triple the capacity of existing plants. The first municipal test of the Airco system will be a two-module installation at Wayne, N.J., that will start up in Aueust. H arings und r way on vinyl chloride rules The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened public hearings last week on the agency's proposed permanent stan dard to reduce worker exposure to vinyl chloride to a "no detectable level." The hearings promise to be long and acrimonious. There are 89 scheduled panels of witnesses, and questioning is permitted. A lead-off witness for the Society of the Plastics Industry,. Anton Vittone, president of B. F. Goodrich Chemical, argued that there are "no data showing that exposure levels as provided under the emer gency standard [50 p.p.m.] are not safe and of a low degree of risk." He said that "the proposed perma nent standard is not technologically feasible and, if adopted, would shut down the industry." SPl estimates that this could result in the. loss of 1.7 million to 2.2 million jobs and a loss of domestic production value of $65 million to $90 million annually. In place of OSHA's proposed per manent standard, Mr. Vittone pro poses a stepped reduction for work er exposure in polyvinyl chloride resin plants that would lower the ceiling to 40 p.p.m. this year and to 25 p.p.m. by late 1976. His pro posed standards for monomer plants are a ceiling exposure of 25 p.p.m. for 1974 and of 10 p.p.m. for late 1975. However, United Rubber Work ers president Peter Bommarito told the hearing that the "Government's goal of `no detectable level' for vinyl chloride is both necessary and feasible." Characterizing the indus try prediction of economic doom as blackmail, Mr. Bommarito con tends that although some of the older plants might have difficulty justifying major alterations, "newer plants have a different problem characterized by the will, not the ability, to do the job." The labor position drew support from a draft environmental impact statement prepared by the Department of Labor, which concludes that "no evidence to date indicates that pro mulgation of the proposed standard will stop vinyl production and use." What effect testimony at the hearing will have on OSHA's final permanent standard remains to be seen. But Daniel P. Boyd, director of the office of standards develop ment for OSHA, said that in pre paring the final standard, which must be set by Oct. 5, OSHA would consider the availability and cost of appropriate technology. OCC 6520 Julv 1 1974 CAEM 5 Industry /Business Du Pont expects growth to be relatively slow for the U.S. chemical industry this year and next, with output up only 3.3% in 1974 and 4 to 5% in 1975. (Production climbed nearly 8% last year over 1972.) But company chairman Irving Shapiro told an industry group in Japan last week that the company is raising its capital spending to about $1 billion this year, up from $736 million in 1973, and its outlays for R&D to $325 million from $276 million last year. France's Rhone-Poulenc plans to buy a 26% interest in Polychrome Corp., Yonkers, N.Y. Polychrome, a producer of photographic, printing, and other chemicals, had sales last year totaling about $45 million. Both imports and exports of sulfur are up sharply this year. Exports during the first four months were running at an annual rate of 2.4 million long tons a year, according to the Bureau of Mines, a level 36% higher than 1973's total exports of 1.8 million long tons. But imports were at an annual rate of 2.1 million long tons, 70% more than the 1.2 million imported last year, with imports from Mexico having tripled. U.S. production is running ^Must slightly above last year's 10.0 million long ton ^level, but apparent consumption, at a 10.1 million long ton annual rate, is 9% ahead of the 9.3 mil lion long tons used in 1973. Industry briefs Pennwalt will expand its Portland, Ore., chlorine capacity by 70% to more than 500 tons daily by mid-1976, primarily to serve regional pulp and paper companies. Union Carbide will expand propionaldehyde ca pacity by 100 million pounds a year (to 250 mil lion pounds) and add a 150 million pound-peryear propionic acid unit by early 1975 at its Texas City, Tex., plant. Government A uniform national 42-cent rate for interstate sales of natural gas set by the Federal Power Commission will have little immediate impact on the chemical industry. Most chemical firms buy locally or from intrastate sources. The new rate (per 1000 cu. ft.) will have a significant impact on the cost of home uses, however. The new rate applies to sales from wells commenced on or after Jan. 1, 1973, and to sales under contracts negotiated on or after that date. Pr sident Nixon has nominated eight new members o the National Science Board, including two :hemists--Dr. L. Donald Shields, presid nt of California State University, Fullerton, and Dr. Nor man Hackerman, president of William Marsh Rice Colleg in Houston--and one chemical engineer, Dr. Donald B. Rice, president of Rand Corp. 6 C&EN Julv 1, 1974 Those leaving the board include Dr. Philip Han dler, president of the National Academy of Sci ences, and Harvard University physicist Harvey Brooks, whose terms have expired. EPA dropped its effort to further curb use of the her bicide 2,4,5-T last week, canceling a formal ad ministrative hearing scheduled for August. The agency cited a lack of scientific evidence to as sess the potential hazards associated with the use of the herbicide on rice, rangeland, and rights-ofway. The action followed a meeting among EPA officials, Dow Chemical (which makes 2,4,5-T), USDA, and the Environmental Defense Fund. NSF has awarded its first energy-related graduate traineeships. The awards, totaling $3.1 million at 30 institutions, provide a $3000 per year stipend for graduate students and a $3000 allowance to the institution in lieu of tuition and fees. The pro gram will begin this fall with 172 traineeships in three energy-related fields--115 in coal and oil shale, 35 in solar energy, and 22 in geothermal energy. International Plans of the U.K.'s Labor government to seek a stake in British industry will be outlined in a docu ment it will issue soon. Some 20 firms, including Courtaulds and Imperial Chemical Industries, have been mentioned unofficially as targets for government participation in management, al though whether this would entail outright national ization is still unclear. Beker Industries is entering the Brazilian fertilizer market. With international partners, Beker will begin immediate marketing of U.S.-produced f rtilizers in central and southern Brazil. By 1977 it plans to construct both fertilizer and phosphoric acid plants in Brazil to produce about 500,000 tons of fertilizer annually from raw materials sup plied by Beker's U.S. operations. The Soviet Union will build an ammonia complex ca pable of producing 1.8 million tons a year on the Volga River near Kuibyshev. Chemical Construc tion Corp. will supply engineering and U.S.-purchased equipment for four 1360 metric-ton-a-day ammonia plants to be operating there by late 1978 under a $200 million contract with the U.S.S.R.'s Techmashimport. Natural gas from the nearby Orenberg field will serve as feedstock. International notes Venezuela's carbon black capacity will be expand ed by 78 million pounds per year by the end of 1975 by a new plant to be built for Industrias Quimicas Zuliana on Lake Maracaibo. Mexico's Kindy Industrial Group plans to borrow $20 million from a consortium of U.S. and Cana dian banks to expand its polyester fiber and resin operations. OCC 6521